I know how birds can fly, fishes swim, and animals run. The runner may be snared, the swimmer hooked, and the flyer shot by the arrow. But there is the dragon: I cannot tell how he mounts on the wind through the clouds, and rises to heaven. Today I have seen Lao-tzu, and can only compare him to the dragon.

—Confucius (attributed)

Laozi (older transliterations include Lao Tse, Lao-Tsu) was a Chinese philosopher, the author of Daodejing (Tao Te Ching), which, tradition says, he wrote while going into exile, at the request of one of the guards of the kingdom, and which is the central document of Daoism (Taoism).

Traditionally, he is said to have lived from 600 BC to 470 BC, contemperously with Confucius (hence the page quote); historians generally think he either is a mythic figure, with the Daodejing actually being a compilation, or actually lived in 4th century BC.